Only Love Left
by IntelligentFish
Summary: Continuing with a character from my 'Old Olney' story. Follows a pair of Bandits who decide to roll the dice and trust each other enough to work and travel together. Will not follow a linear day to day plot, but follow a broader scope to reveal the characters in a way that lets them reveal themselves to each other.
1. Chapter 1

_There are many dangerous people out in the Wastes._

Tessa fell to the dirt, sending dust puffing up all around. She was surrounded by the time she got up to her knees. Her wide eyes took in the leaping silhouettes of men, encircling her in a case of loud bleating and primal yelps. Animals excited at the prospect of fresh meat. She was an attractive young woman. Meat. They'd chased her down into a dip surrounded by rocky cliffs. The perfect secluded killing ground. Nothing but rock and nowhere to run. The dust cleared and she recognized all four of them. They'd been there at the Brass Lantern down in Megaton, eying her. She'd turned to leave and her dress had caught on the edge of the metal stool, revealing leg up to the thigh for them to see. She knew it'd been enough. She got through the town gates and started running. Didn't stop till near sunset. That's when she saw the shapes over the horizon. She tripped more than once looking back at the growing shapes. The sounds of warm blooded monster men filled the air. Then they were upon her.

They were much different now. The dirty ragged clothes they'd wore in town made them blend in, they'd looked and acted like real people. It was rare, but not irregular bandit behavior. Every once in a while they managed to murder some folk with clothing in their size and smuggled themselves into honest folk's territory to trade. But out here in the Wasteland, they'd reverted to reptiles, merciless; on the hunt for food, drink and a warm spot. They bounded around screaming, exposed as demons.

Two wore gas masks. Another had a twisted grin that strayed off in a dark brown tattoo that ended on the side of his shaved head. It looked like it had been dug in with a knife with all the care of a child dragging a crayon across the wall. Then the alpha, a giant bald gorilla of a man with beady eyes and a mottled beard. They all had something sharp hanging off the chunks of leather strewn haphazardly around their bare chests. A blade, a screwdriver with a sharpened tip, one had a hunk of wood with a bunch of bent brown nails hammered through it. One of the gas masks and the gorilla had holstered pistols at the side of their dirty jeans. Then the personal stuff, the trophies on display. A necklace of teeth that looked human. Another had a tiny pair of shoes laced through his belt loop.

_They'd done terrible things because they were terrible people with nothing left in the world to stop them. No reason to stop._

The one with the scarred shaved head made a grab for her leg, but came back with a handful of dress instead. The material ripped apart like a zipper, leaving her with nothing but her undergarments. She screamed and kicked as another leapt in and touched a grimy hand to her thigh before jumping back, whooping with excitement. Soon their excitement would subside and they'd get violent.

As expected, the gorilla man stepped forward. He smacked her kicking legs aside, set his hands on her shoulders and with one yank brought her up to her feet. Everyone was quiet and still in the swirling dust. He dragged her close, keeping a crushing hand between her neck and her shoulder. She could feel her skin bruising, he could break her collar bone if he wanted to. The other beefy hand slid up her leg. She winced as he rubbed her crotch a few times through the thin material then continued up her stomach.

"I'm going to feel you all over, little girlie."

She turned her head away from his hungry grin, that putrid breath worse than ghoul flesh.

"Then I'm going to feel inside of you." He held her face and made her look at him.

"Then we're going to cut you into small pieces."

_There are plenty of dangerous people out in the Wastes._

"And eat you!" A muffled shout came from one of the gas masks. They exploded into leaping and shouting as the beefy man reached down between her legs again. But something unexpected happened. Tessa rested her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. Such a tender, passionate gesture. It threw him off balance.

_But I'm one of the smartest._

The man pushed her away and all noise died away again. His face was confused. It was only when he brushed a hand up to the wetness at his neck, felt the huge flap of skin lift up, and brought the hand back in front of his face drenched in red that he knew he was dying. He fell to the ground with a loud thump and the other men stood silent and frozen in place. All eyes were on her hands, wrapped around the handle and trigger of the fallen man's pistol, all too aware of the tiny beige spike protruding a few inches long under her pinky.

"Don't say a word," She kept the gun trained on the mask with the holstered gun as she backed off with small controlled steps, enough to pick him off and anyone who tried to rush her, "One move and I'll cap you. That's a promise."

The shaved one wasn't buying it.

"Oh yeah, lady? You fast enough to gun all three of us at-

There was a loud bang and a spray of red. He dropped, a thumb sized hole spilling blood between his still glaring eyes.

"What did I say? What the fuck did I say?"

The two masked men were shaking now.

"The gun. Out real slow then drop it to the ground. Two fingers on the handle only, got it?"

It was disarming for the raiders. A young slender lady in her panties, commanding as a drill sergeant ordering them around to maximum success. He did as he was told then walked over to the other side of his buddy where she told him to.

"Now," A smirk crept across her mouth, "Undress."

They looked like they might grumble then thought better of it. They began removing the leather strips and shuffled off their jeans till two men in gas masks stood in their underpants. She made them toss everything over.

"Good. Now kiss the ground."

They dropped to their knees and pressed their masks in the dirt without hesitation.

"Stick your asses up in the air. Nice and high."

She stifled a laugh as they did as they were told, shaping out like roast chickens. Then she shot them both in the head.

It was silent again and the sun was creeping down further past the horizon. She gathered up her spoils, quickly slid into a pair of jeans and strapped enough leather over her to hide her chest and then started climbing boulders in the direction of town. People would pay a good amount for any sort of clothing without blood on it.


	2. Chapter 2

Rivet City. Everyone called it that, but in reality, it was a beached aircraft carrier. Ked could hardly believe it the first time he'd seen it towering in the river, a half crumbled building with a bridge connected to the monstrosity. The metal walkway always sank with his footsteps like it would buckle at any moment. The wastelands were the new mother of invention. Once inside, it was hard to argue with the 'City' part of it all. They had a science lab with a working hydroponics bay, a shopping area with enough trade variety, some old crazy running an American history museum, a clinic, bar and a hotel. Hell, they even had a church in case you were worried you were going to burn and needed to get some prayers in.

The walls of the shopping area creaked and dripped, not going to split open, but constantly glistening like a limestone cave. The wooden tables and chairs were starting to rot. Ked had found his niche at Gary's Galley, the local bar smack dab in the center of the shopping room. It was busy, many familiar resident faces and the few travelers were going all around the shops lining the room wall, grabbing everything from guns, to clothes, to trinkets, to food, to drugs and all the small things in between. It was a good day for comfort, he'd found a suit at Potomac Attire, well worth listening to that stuck up shop keep rave about his big plans for the city council. You could barely see the grime on it and the only blood stain was dark against the leg.

Rivet city was always a good stop and shop when he was in the area. When he was in the area being the main deal. The surrounding crumbles of DC were beyond dangerous and the waters were filled with Mirelurks. But after running into those Talon company goons, he'd needed a place to sell their guns. The machine gun spread hadn't left enough saleable fabric on them. If they hadn't been so restless and blood thirsty, Ked would have let them live. No one ever lives long enough to learn that lesson.

Someone bumped into him, nice and hard nearly knocking him from his chair. He tucked his hand into the suit, reaching for the blade nestled by his armpit. Then a pair of soft feminine hands steadied him and a beautiful face was inches from his, smiling and laughing.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

She was gorgeous, flowing brown hair barely matted to the mottled standard of the Wastes, long faded red dress hanging off her slender figure.

"Don't worry about it." Ked said, letting his hand drop back to the table.

"Well, I won't then, Mr. strong man."

She almost pranced away but Ked's hand shot out, grabbing her by the wrist. He sat her down next to him at the table.

"I'm only going to say this once," He reached under the dress strap at her shoulder and moved his hand down near her breast, "Well done," He closed his fingers around the paper and yanked the prewar bills from her dress like a magic trick, "But you try and steal from me again, I'll fucking smack you."

The girl sighed and scrunched her face into a pout.

"Compliment accepted. So are you buying me a drink or what?"

"Maybe," Ked took another sip of stale beer, "Where'd you learn to pick pockets like that?"

"My daddy taught me!" She rested her head between her hands, fluttered her eye lashes, and then abruptly snapped out of it, "Sorry, bu. This is not how this conversation's going to go."

"Fair enough," Ked finished his beer, setting the empty bottle on the table, "Where are you heading?"

"Gross. Rapist question." She stuck her tongue out, "you got one more try before I walk away."

Ked stood up and pushed his chair in.

"Bye."

The woman was up in a hurry, tugging at his arm as he led her to the bar. No feeling of prying fingers this time.

"Oh, come on!" She whined, "Play the game a bit. You're the most interesting person here."

"You don't know anything about me."

"Exactly."

Ked considered this, then flagged the bartender down.

"Come on big guy. Next one's free. Ask anything."

Ked ordered some drinks and waited for the bartender to head off to pour them.

"Alright. What do you do for a living?"

The woman rolled her eyes.

"You saw. That's how we met, remember?"

"That's a hobby. Not a reliable means of feeding yourself."

There was a flicker in her eyes. Admiration was growing.

"Back to the table and I'll tell you."

Ked nodded and slid a drink over to her on the bar counter.

"I don't drink be-

The bottle began to tip over the counter edge but the woman's reflexes kicked in and she lunged to steady it, going off balance herself. Ked leaned in, steadying her at the smalls of her back.

"You alright?"

She stood back up to her full dignified height.

"I don't drink beer."

But Ked was already heading to the table.

"You do now. So what is it you do?"

She was having a hard time stabilizing her emotions as they sat down again. She was into him, but also wanted to kill him. It was rad.

"You know how it is these days. Odds and ends. Whatever anyone's willing to pay for."

Ked raised his eyebrows.

"Anything but that. Money doesn't unlock this kitty."

"Odds and ends. You know, it's funny," Ked reached into his pant pocket and placed a particularly nasty looking knife on the chair next to her, "How it's always murder."

She dropped all pretext and her eyes went wide.

"How did you?" She felt onto her leg garter and pulled the tiny metal weight from it. She set the rectangular lump of metal on the table and stared at him. It was the approximate weight of her knife, she hadn't felt the switch.

"Alright. Done playing. Who are you?" She hastily yanked the knife from the chair and tucked it beside her leg

Ked kept his silence as the woman went on.

"Seriously, I know you're playing it cool with my technique, but I'm not a good pickpocket. I'm amazing."

She retrieved a tiny bottle cap that shimmered gold and slapped it on the table.

"This? I jacked this straight out of Paradise Falls. Eulogy Jones was giving us a tour of his little slave racket. I nicked his good luck charm right out of his pocket. He didn't notice. You did. So who the hell are you?"

"Sorry, bue. That's not how this conversation is going to go."

They were eying each other now. Ked smiled. Trouble was brewing. Life had become a chore. He was dangerously bored.

"You particular with where you go?" He asked.

"No."

"You got contacts?"

"More than you, mystery man."

"Got a job on the go?"

She nodded.

"Feel like travelling together?" He hardly believed the words as they slipped out his mouth. His brain was most certainly trying to kill him. She'd probably kill him in his sleep, or chain him to the bed, leave him naked after gathering all his stuff. She could also rock his world like a woman hadn't in longer than he cared to admit. A thief of her expertise could prove a useful partner. She could be the most interesting thing that happened to him in a long time. Fair risk.

"Hell yes." She said with smile, "You hot?"

"Yeah, you too?"

She was definitely going to try to steal his stuff.

"You got a room up in here? I want to mark you up."

Still, worth the risk. Ked nodded and she was up, dragging him to the exit.

"One last thing," Ked said, they were halfway up the stairs to the next deck at the speed she was dragging him, "What's your name?"

"Tessa. Yours?"

"Ked."


End file.
